Songpan City > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 10 - 26th August 2012 > China

Today is our last day in Jiuzhaigou. Tonight we will go back to Chengdu. But before go to the airport, we go to some shopping place.

First, we go to stone government shop. Then we go to tea government shop. Then eat lunch, and visit Mounigou Scenic Area. It is like Jiuzhaigou, but new and still not many tourists know about this area.

 We only took picture at the 1st spot because the path to go further is still been blocked.

Then we visit Songpan City (松潘). It's an ancient city in Sichuan Province. We took picture in the gate.

After eat dinner, wo go to airport and at 23:30 go back to Chengdu.

Jiuzhaigou Valley > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 09 - 25th August 2012 > China

We woke up early then go to Jiuzhaigou Valley. We decided to rent a car than ride shuttle to save time. The car with 20 seat cost 4800 Yuan/car.

There's 12 spot to see and with car, we could see at least 9 spot. But with shuttle bus, we only can see 4-5 spot.

The most beautiful season to visit Jiuzhaigou is in Autumn, October / November.

Don't forget to rent tranditional clothes and take picture in there.

Then we go eat dinner with villager. If we lucky, we can eat Yak meat.

And go back to hotel to enjoy last day in hotel.

Huanglong > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 08 - 24th August 2012 > China

We woke up early to catch flight. We supposed to depart at 04:30 but there's some group member that late and we depart on 05:00. Arrive at the airport, we have to hurry and we are the last one that enter the plane.

I got last seat.

After depart for about 45 minutes, we supposed to arrive shortly. But because the bad weather, we have to go back to Chengdu.

Then at 10:00, we take-off again and this time we succesfully landing.

Then we continued our journey using bus to Huanglong National Scenic Reserve. Our local guide called Xiao Bo. After eating lunch, we enter The scenic Reserve. We should be able to continue our journey, but our local guide afraid that we late so he called us many times to ask us to go down. And it's annoying. So we didn't finished until the rainbow pole.

Don't forget to bought Xiang Piao Piao drink because it's suitable with the weather.

Then we go to Jiuzhaigou Hotel and eat buffet dinner at Jiuzhai Paradise Interconinental Resort.

Tip: It's better if you stay in usual hotel than the luxury one because you will not enjoy the hotel much. The food is so-so, it's better to looking for street food. And spend your time to enjoy the scenic.

Chengdu Reseach Base Panda > FengHuang--ZhangJiaJie--ChengDu--JiuZhaiGou Day 07 - 23th August 2012 > China

Because we arrive late, so the local guide give us time to sleep more. We depart at 09:00.

We go to Chengdu Research Base Panda. But because the weather is still hot, the panda didn't active in the outside but they sleep in their room. There's Red Panda too.

Then we go to eat lunch.
And go shopping at Government Silk Shop. We also go to Wide and Narrow Street 宽窄巷子.

Then we go eat dinner, and shopping at Chunxi Road.
Then watch Changing Face Show which very famous in Chengdu which cost RMB 180.

And we go back to hotel to rest because tomorrow we need to take early morning flight.

Visit E-Mei Shan then go back to Beijing # Sichuan - China

Today we will visit E-Mei Shan 峨眉山, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China and is traditionally regarded as the bodhimaṇḍa, or place of enlightenment, of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is known in Mandarin as Pǔxián Púsà (普賢菩薩). -- wikipedia

It's a bad weather when we come here, raining very hard and strong wind. And we didn't prepare any rain coat or umbrella so we all get wet. The cable car didn't operated on that day, so we can't see anything. It's foggie. We only walk around for a while, then decided to go to airport early.

My shoes got wet and uncomfortable, so we buy rattan sandals XD.

Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area and Face-Changing Show # Sichuan - China

The Leshan Giant Buddha 乐山大佛 le shan da fou (wikipedia) is a 71-metre (233 ft) tall stone statue, built between 713 and 803. It is carved out of a cliff face of Cretaceous red bed sandstones that lies at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan.

The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below its feet. It is the largest and tallest stone Buddha statue in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is located at the Lingyun Mountain’s Qifeng Peak. Qifeng Peak is located at the junction of the Minjiang River, Qingyi River, and Dadu River.

Other than the Leshan Giant Buddha, the Danxia Landform also contains abundant history and cultural connotations, such as cliff tombs and cliff dwelling.

After visiting The Lesan Giant Buddha, we are back to Chengdu to watch Face-Changing Show 变脸 bian lian (wikipedia).

Face-Changing Showw 变脸 is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the more general Sichuan opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music.

This show is very interesting. The performers wear vividly colored masks, typically depicting well known characters from the opera, and can change one face to another almost instantaneously with the swipe of a fan, a movement of the head or wave of the hand, without delay. That's whey they named it Face-Changing Show.

If you plan to go to Chengdu, you have to watch this show.

At night, we go to Emei, to stay in there. And because we take "Student Price Tour", our hotel happens to be an old dormitory, which has never been used already. I don't know if there's another guest, but the hotel itself is very creepy. 1 room is for 3 people, and very dim. If you talking inside your room, then another room could hear it. Fortunately, we all stay in same floor. The bathroom is very dirty too. Kind of experience XD

Five Colors Lake Huanglong # Sichuan - China

Today, we will visit 黄龙 Huanglong. Actually, I didn't have any imaginary about 黄龙 Huanglong before, but because it's included in the trip, so we just go there. And surely, I won't regret it.

It is one of UNESCO Heritage Site, altitude between 1700m-5588m.

We have to walk around 2-3 hours to go the peak, actually you can ride cable car to go up but the cable car station is not the same as the car parking. So usually, travel agent didn't suggest it.

The view from the entrance to the peak is surely beautiful.

But just as reminder, please go to trekking first until the peak, and enjoy the scene while you go down. Otherwise, you won't make it to the peak.

We will see this building before continue trekking.

Then the road is going up, but the view in the front is very beautiful. I think, we walk at the old path of Huanglong.

There's a Five Colors Lake 五彩池 wu cai chi in the peak. You will arrive in a temple as entrance to the lake.

Finally, we arrive at Five Colors Lake. It's very beautiful.

After take some photos, we go down using the new path. The new path has the good road, which we can enjoy the scene while go down / up. And there's a waterfall too.

Going down is faster than to go up. Fortunately, we have more than 4 hours in here. One day, surely I want to go back here, maybe in different season.

Ohh, don't forget, maybe some of you will need additional oxygen tube because the air is very thin. And the location is very high.